Stuart Jay Raj challenged to put IPA to the Test with Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllanty

Stuart Jay Raj challenged to put IPA to the Test with Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllanty

I woke up this morning to find a challenge posted for me in the Thai language learning group ‘Farang Can Learn Thai’. https://www.facebook.com/groups/faranglearnthai/?fref=ts There is often debate about whether IPA should be used as a standard for Thai transliteration into English (if any). While I prefer to have learners jump straight into the Thai script, I have chosen in my Cracking Thai Fundamentals programme to use IPA as that bridge for people to learn about sounds and then pronounce the Thai sounds correctly. The challenge to which this video is a response read as follows – เบน เร่งสมบูรณ์ 43 mins · Bangkok Just as a kind of reliability test of IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet, I think) I want to ask Stuart Jay Raj to be a sport and have a go at pronouncing this correctly, _Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch_ [ˌɬanvairˌpuɬɡwɨ̞nˌɡɨ̞ɬɡoˌɡɛrəˌχwərnˌdrobuɬˌɬantɨ̞ˌsiljoˌɡoɡoˈɡoːχ] I am assuming this is IPA as it comes from wikipedia but I might be wrong so feel free to correct me if I am wrong. Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Llanfairpwllgwyngyll The word is from the Welsh language and is the name of a train station in Wales. The name means: [St.] Mary’s Church (Llanfair) [in] the hollow (pwll) of the white hazel (gwyn gyll) near (go ger) the rapid whirlpool (y chwyrn drobwll) [and] the church of [St.] Tysilio (llantysilio) with a red cave ([a]g ogo[f] goch). Right now, I am 99 per cent convinced that IPA makes sense as a world standard and would benefit the populace of the world if taught at schools. Have a go, Stuart, be a sport, and if you can get a video of it then legend, mate!

Stuart Jay Raj is a polyglot who specializes in the languages and dialects spoken in South East Asia and China. His talents have allowed him to earn a professional living as a simultaneous interpreter in Thai, Mandarin, Cantonese, and Indonesian, among others, providing language and cultural training for multinational companies in the region and hosting his own TV programme on Thailand's Channel 5. He holds a degree in Cognitive and Applied Linguistics from Griffith University and has become an expert in the field of language acquisition with a strong track record of success. Stuart's background knowledge of Sanskrit, Khmer, Lao and various Chinese dialects and minority languages enables him to present a fascinating and unique perspective on the Thai language which makes everything fall logically into place.

Who is Stuart Jay Raj?

Stuart Jay Raj is a polyglot who specializes in the languages and dialects spoken in South East Asia and China. His talents have allowed him to earn a professional living as a simultaneous interpreter in Thai, Mandarin, Cantonese, and Indonesian, among others, providing language and cultural training for multinational companies in the region and hosting his own TV programme on Thailand's Channel 5. He holds a degree in Cognitive and Applied Linguistics from Griffith University and has become an expert in the field of language acquisition with a strong track record of success. Stuart's background knowledge of Sanskrit, Khmer, Lao and various Chinese dialects and minority languages enables him to present a fascinating and unique perspective on the Thai language which makes everything fall logically into place.